Story Tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, October 2017

Credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL’s Frank Combs and Michael Starr of the U.S. Armed Forces (driver) work in ORNL’s Vehicle Security Laboratory to evaluate a prototype device that can detect network intrusions in all modern vehicles.

Credit: Liam Collins/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL researchers demonstrated ultrafast mapping of surface voltage dynamics because of ion migration induced by an electric field in a perovskite solar-cell device.

Cybersecurity – Guarding autonomous vehicles

A new Oak Ridge National Laboratory-developed method promises to protect connected and autonomous vehicles from possible network intrusion. Researchers built a prototype plug-in device designed to alert drivers of vehicle cyberattacks. The prototype is coded to learn regular timing of signals in the communications network of an individual vehicle and detect abnormalities in timing frequency that could indicate a network intrusion or malicious software. Initial prototype testing in ORNL’s Vehicle Security Laboratory demonstrated near-perfect intrusion detection rates. “This is a first step toward developing solutions to protect vehicles,” says ORNL’s Bobby Bridges. “Ideally, accurate detection capabilities will facilitate ways to contain or block network intrusions in real-time on the road.” [Contact: Kim Askey, (865) 946-1861; askeyka@ornl.gov]

Caption: ORNL’s Frank Combs and Michael Starr of the U.S. Armed Forces (driver) work in ORNL’s Vehicle Security Laboratory to evaluate a prototype device that can detect network intrusions in all modern vehicles. Credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Microscopy – Breaking the time barrier

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have developed a technique for making ultrafast measurements using atomic force microscopy, which previously could only investigate slow or static material structures and functions. In AFM, a rastering probe maps a material’s surface and captures physical and chemical properties. But the probe is slow to respond to what it detects. This temporal bottleneck inspired ORNL’s fast free force recovery technique, which uses advanced machine learning algorithms to analyze instantaneous tip motion to produce high-resolution images 3,500 times faster than standard AFM detection methods. “This new approach can probe fast processes, such as charge screening, ionic transport and electrochemical phenomena, which were previously inaccessible with traditional AFM,” said ORNL’s Liam Collins, first author of a publication describing the technique. [Dawn Levy, (865) 576-6448; levyd@ornl.gov]

Caption: ORNL researchers demonstrated ultrafast mapping of surface voltage dynamics because of ion migration induced by an electric field in a perovskite solar-cell device. Credit: Liam Collins/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy

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A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated a new method for splitting light beams into their frequency modes, work that could spur advancements in quantum information processing and distributed quantum computing.

Black women with higher incomes are more likely to experience a forceful police interaction during a traffic stop, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis."We found that the likelihood of exposure to each type of police use of force was significantly greater for black females with incomes over $50,000," said Robert Motley Jr.

Using high-intensity pulses of infrared light, scientists found evidence of superconductivity associated with charge "stripes" in a material above the temperature at which it begins to transmit electricity without resistance--a finding that could help them design better high-temperature superconductors.

In a recent demonstration project, physicists from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Berkeley Lab used the Cori supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center to reconstruct data collected from a nuclear physics experiment, an advance that could dramatically reduce the time it takes to make detailed data available for scientific discoveries.

In light of changes in how electricity is being both generated and consumed, the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has written a new report analyzing challenges facing the nation's electric grid and making recommendations for ensuring continued reliability.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have discovered a state of magnetism that may be the missing link to understanding the relationship between magnetism and unconventional superconductivity.

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News Release PORTLAND, Ore. -- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and OHSU today announced a joint collaboration to improve patient care by focusing research on highly complex sets of biomedical data, and the tools to interpret them.The OHSU-PNNL Precision Medicine Innovation Co-Laboratory, called PMedIC, will provide a comprehensive ecosystem for scientists to utilize integrated 'omics, data science and imaging technologies in their research in order to advance precision medicine -- an approach to disease treatment that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person.

Forty-five years ago this month, a telescope tucked inside a 14-story, 500-ton dome atop a mile-high peak in Arizona took in the night sky for the first time and recorded its observations on glass photographic plates. Today, the dome closes on the previous science chapters of the 4-meter Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope and starts preparing for its new role in creating the largest 3-D map of the universe. This map could help determine why the universe is expanding at faster and faster rates, driven by an unknown force called dark energy.

Twenty-four teams from 16 Bay Area high schools faced off Feb. 3 in the SLAC Regional DOE Science Bowl, a series of fast-paced question-and-answer matches that test knowledge in biology, chemistry, physics, earth and space sciences, energy and math. The competition is hosted annually by the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

The University of Illinois at Chicago's Energy Resources Center has received funding from ComEd to provide energy-efficient LED light bulbs, advanced power strips, and educational material to income-qualified participants in northern Illinois.As part of a $3.1 million year-long investment, the utility company will fund the Low Income Kit Energy (LIKE) program, allowing engineers at UIC's Energy Resources Center to provide energy-saving kits to 35,000 eligible individuals and/or families.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Feb. 1 announced up to $3 million will be made available to U.S. manufacturers for public/private projects aimed at applying high performance computing to industry challenges for the advancement of energy innovation.

UPTON, NY -- Elke-Caroline Aschenauer, a senior physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been awarded a Humboldt Research Award for her contributions to the field of experimental nuclear physics. This prestigious international award--issued by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn, Germany--comes with a prize of EUR60,000 (more than $70,000 U.

A team of networking experts from the Department of Energy's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), with the Globus team from the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, have designed a new approach that makes data sharing faster, more reliable and more secure.